Wednesday, May 6, 2015

DO you know or remember – Alok Kapali, a leg
spinner who played for Bangladesh; he had a cult following there, especially
after his hat-trick in a Test. The
promise of a luminous career began in 2002 when, in his first year at the
highest level, Kapali carved an unbeaten 89 in an ODI against West Indies,
followed by two more half-centuries in the Tests in the next two weeks.

Some
say the 8th season – IPL 2015 is not as exciting ! – that is
perception !! – as the league phase is drawing closer – the probabilities are
exciting. There have been some young
performers from Shreyas Iyer to Sarfraz Khan
while veterans like Virender Sehwag struggle. As of now,
Kings XI Punjab, who finished as runners-up last season, are placed at
the bottom of the points tally and look the first to be ejected from the
play-offs race. Meanwhile, Chennai Super Kings, the most successful team of the
tournament, continued to dominate the charts.
Ajinkya Rahane and Ashish
Nehra are topping the batting and
bowling charts respectively. In between,
there have been washouts and a 10-10 over match too whence Mandeep Singh
enthralled making 18 bal 45. Sunil
Narine has been directed not to bowl off spinners and is sort of out of
tournament !

Rajagopal Satish of Chennai Superstars playing !

Remember
ICL still – the Indian Cricket League
(ICL) was a private cricket league funded by Zee Entertainment Enterprises that
operated between 2007 and 2009. Its two seasons included tournaments between
four international teams (World XI, India, Pakistan and Bangladesh) and nine
domestic teams notionally located in major Indian cities as well as the
champions Lahore Badshahs who were based in Lahore, Pakistan. The matches were
played in the Twenty20 format. Each team
was coached by a former international cricketer and comprised four
international, two Indian and eight budding domestic players. CSK’s equivalent were Chennai Superstars !!
DD = Delhi Giants; MI= Mumbai Champs – that faded away as Boards banned players
and grounds at prime locations were not
made available !!

Now
there is news of a ‘global rebel
league’- the ICC confirmed it was
investigating the registration of company names which it regarded as of
"concern to the sport of cricket" as reports of a rebel organisation
which might split the game continued to emerge. The Guardian newspaper reported recently that Indian media conglomerate, the Essel
Group, had attempted to register the company name "Australian Cricket
Control Pty Ltd" and had made similar efforts in other cricket-playing
nations. Owned by billionaire Subhash
Chandra, the driving force behind the ill-fated rebel Indian Cricket League
(ICL), Essel issued a statement saying they were "geared up to enter the
sports business at a global level, focusing on cricket".

Whether
it is merely an international Twenty20 league or a full scale assault on the
ICC's governance of the game, it is clear some challenge to cricket's status
quo is afoot. Cricket
Australia dismissed as "highly
speculative" media reports that Michael Clarke and David Warner would be
offered $40 million, 10-year contracts to play in a rebel league. A report in
Hindustan Times said Essel, which through its Ten Sports channel owns
rights to cricket around the world but not in India, had registered 15
city-based leagues in India. "We have a massive plan for cricket in India
and groundwork has been going on in many states," Naresh Dhoundiyal, a
senior Essel Group official, told the newspaper.

Lalit Modi, who
helped set up the lucrative IPL Twenty20 league before falling out with the
Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI), said he had been approached by
Chandra to get involved in a plan to set up a new global governing body but had
turned him down. "Subhash is a
powerful body no doubt but it is a foolish plan at the moment," he said in
an interview with the Guardian on Thursday.

Back
home, it is
stated that Indian cricket leaders are
not convinced that a rival league could drive a wedge through the sport's
global competition or threaten the power of the International Cricket Council.
After all, they say, this has been tried before in India - and didn't succeed. "No one can stop someone from setting it
up (a new system), but to dislodge what is established is very difficult,"
Niranjan Shah, the former secretary for the Indian cricket board (BCCI), is quoted as saying. "The ICC is cricket's only world
(governing) body," said BCCI’s Anurag Thakur.

One
could recall that the players who joined ICL were banned and could get back to
National reckoning only after BCCI announced an amnesty scheme.
Former India allrounder Madan Lal
believes that gaining players' confidence will be the biggest challenge for
anyone trying to form a breakaway competition. New Zealand Cricket believes Black Caps are
not at risk of being poached by organisers of a proposed rebel league, backed
by Essel Group. Barclay NZ representative at ICC said NZC had blocked attempts for the
registration of the name Aotearoa Cricket Ltd. and revealed that the board
became aware of potential New Zealand involvement in December when it had to
block attempts to register company names New Zealand Cricket Ltd and Cricket
Ltd. The Sunday Star Times reported that
New Zealand cricketers are under a master collective agreement that runs
through until 2018 but players' individual contracts are renewed annually.
Barclay said despite the fact players could be targeted on an annual basis, NZC
was not concerned players would be poached.

Brains behind IPL
believes perilous finances of counties make them ideal targets for businesses
planning to move into cricket world by establishing own leagues and governing
body outside control of recognised boards. English cricket is the most
vulnerable to take over by a rebel league according to Lalit Modi, the founder
of the Indian Premier League. His warning comes as the England & Wales
Cricket Board faces one of the biggest decisions of its history as the debate
over the future of Twenty20 cricket in this country threatens to split the
game. The ECB is currently reviewing the state of county cricket with a view to
relaunching the Twenty20 competition in 2017.

Ironically,
it was ECB which first mooted the T20 before it went global !! Alok Kapali struck a
century against India in an Asia Cup match in June 2008, but within months
would take a hiatus from Bangladesh cricket by signing up with ICL. He was the unlikely hero to score the first
century in ICL – a 60-ball 100 in Hyderabad that won him a scooter.